Light In A Dark Year
by FearlessSong13
Summary: Following James, Lily, and all their friends through their 7th year at Hogwarts. I know I suck at summaries. Please read!Review if you want, you dont have to!
1. The Train Ride

A/N: For the purposes of this story Peter doesn't exist and Frank Longbottom doesn't marry Alice. Oh and in the end Lily and James won't die. Just gonna get that out there sorry for the spoiler but you might as well know. This story will mostly be told from the different girls points of view. Occasionally one of the boys point of view.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the characters you dont know and the plotline

The Train Ride

Lily's PoV:

'Ugh, it's like this trunk just gets heavier and heavier.' She thought to herself as she pushes her trolley with her trunk and her duffle bag across Platform 9¾. She was already half in her school uniform and was quite happy to be going back. 'This year will be amazing. Not only am I going back but I'm going back as Head Girl!' Then she heard a piercing scream that sliced the air.

"LILY!" the voice called. She turned around to have someone slam right into. She looked and saw her sister that God forgot to give her, Leah. Leah was 5' 6" and had a pale complexion with medium brown hair that fell in waves down her back. Her most beautiful feature was her eyes which were a striking violet.

"Hey guys!" came a voice from the other side of the platform. Over bound Lux (a/n: I know, I know I put myself in the story but it's somewhat like creating an alter ego. They are everything that you want to be) the tallest of the group. She was 5' 10" with a golden complexion that never dimmed and long blonde hair that cascaded down her back in waves. Within those waves she had a few streaks of pink, purple, and green. She had eyes that could pierce through your soul and see right through any lie. They were ice blue with gray mixed in. Believe me when I say you never wanted to be on the other side of her death glares.

"Guys!" we turned our heads and saw Lucia running towards us. Lucia was tall standing at 5' 7½" she had a golden complexion with brown hair that fell down her back in soft waves. She had rich brown eyes that could melt people to do what she wanted them to. Finally we saw Lucy and she saw us then she ran over to us and we all started talking at once. Lucy was 5' 6½" tall the exact same height as me. She had a pale complexion similar to Leah's but she had blonde hair like Lux (minus the multi-colored streaks) that fell down her back in lose ringlet curls. She had eyes that were weird because they were never just one color, they were mostly a medium blue mixed with grey but it had flecks of hazel, green, and dark brown. We were finally back together. The many parts of a puzzle put back together to become whole again. People always would joke about how all of our names started with and 'L' or how (not including me) all of our names meant light in some way shape or form. So we started to get called the L's or the flowerlights. They were weird names but we never used them, we were just a family that was there for each other no matter what and even though we fought sometimes we still were sisters at the end of the day. We were inseparable and undefeatable, if you wanted to mess with one of us you had to go through all of us, and that was an extremely scary thing that someone would have to do. We all had different friends outside of just us and we would always let anyone tag along if they wanted. We finally got all of our trunks loaded after we found a compartment talking the entire way about our summers and what we did. Basically we became girly-girls and just gossiped and chattered away happily. We finally sat down when our compartment door slide open to reveal none other that the Gryffindor 7th years in the corridor. At the head was James, who had asked me out no less than a thousand times over the past six years. He had on this lopsided grin that just bugged me to no end.

"Evans! Missed you over the holiday! Now that we're back will you go out with me?" he smiled at the end looking at me with his hazel eyes.

"No way in hell will I ever go out with you Potter." I replied glaring at him. At that point Remus had pushed his way forward to sit next to Leah and I. He then proceeded to kiss Leah on the check. Remus and Leah had been dating since the end of 6th year and at this point it looked like they were going to last forever and get married.

"Moony, no PDA, please!" whined Sirius.

"Get over yourself Black." Snapped Lucia.

"You know your being a hypocrite, right?" Lucy asked.

"Wait does he even know what a hypocrite is?" Lux pointed out.

"I doubt he does." I piped in.

"Yeah, Sirius a hypocrite is a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, esp. a person whose actions belie stated beliefs." Leah stated to a very confused Sirius.

"Huh?" was Sirius's reply.

"Basically since you always display affection for someone, even if it is a new person every week, in public you have no right to say that others cannot display affections for the public to see because you do it so often. Hence you are a hypocrite." Was Leah's response.

"You still don't make any sense!" Sirius whined

"Forget it!" all five of us yelled at the same time. Lucy got up after that to go and say hi to Frank whom she had been dating since halfway through 6th year. When they kissed, Sirius started to open his mouth to say something but before he could Lux mumbled "Hypocrite" just loud enough for Sirius to hear. At that point Lucia, Leah, Lux, Remus, and myself started laughing uncontrollably. James was smirking, Daren was chuckling, and Sirius was still looking as confused as ever. Finally I got up and said

"Well I got to go. Catch you guys later!" Everyone looked confused

"Where are you going?" leave it to Lux to be straight forward and blunt when asking a question. I hit my forehead with the heel of my hand as I said

"Oh my gosh I forgot to tell you guys! I'm Head Girl!"

"Well duh we knew you would be Head Girl since like 3rd year!" Leah stated.

"Lils, please don't tell me you were surprised when you found out. Otherwise we haven't done our job properly." Lux said with that look in her eyes that was just, well, Lux. There was no other way to put it.

"Well, I was a little surprised…"

"We've failed!" cried Lux as she looked upwards and then dropped her head into her hands.

"Well, bye I have to go and plan the Prefect meeting. See ya later!" and with that I left.

* * *

When I got to the Heads carriage I just stood there, taking it all in. Then I herd someone come up behind me. I turned around to see no one other than James Potter.

"What do you want Potter?"

"I just came up here to help plan the Prefect meeting." He replied with and innocent look on his face.

"Why on earth would you do that?"

"I am going to do it because I am Head Boy. It's what I'm supposed to do." He just stood there looking all nonchalant in the doorframe.

"Your WHAT?!" I looked at him with horror in my eyes.

"I'm Head Boy. When I got my letter I thought that for certain Dumbledore had fallen off his rocker, or he was influenced by substances that we have yet to figure out about." He had this smirk that looked like it was permanently attached to his face.

"Dumbledore probably did fall of his rocker." I mumbled under my breath.

"Let's at least try to be nice to each other this year since we will be working together for the rest of the year. How does that sound Evans, I mean Lily."

"Like a truce? Oh and no need with the formalities, Potter. I will still call you Potter so you can still call me Evans. No need to force yourself to call me by my first name."

"But I want to call you Lily. I don't like being on a last name basis."

"Well lets just get through this prefect meeting then we'll figure all of this mess out." Ok I snapped at him but I had ever right to he was distracting me from organizing this meeting.

"Ok. If you say so." Was his response.


	2. We're Back

A/N: This will be a bit boring for some time while I go into background stories. Sorry if you don't like it but the characters need a past! Also I think that a lot of the story will be form both Lily's PoV and Lux's PoV because their PoVs are fun to write from. I know that J. K. Rowling intended for James to be a chaser but for this story he is a seeker.

We're Back

Lux's PoV:

We all started walking towards the Great Hall. We were so excited to be back for another year. This year, I had decided, was going to be the year of no fear. Why should there ever be fear in a year? Well it hasn't been that way in the past. The past years had been filled with fear of going home. She hated it at home. Well what was supposed to be home turned into hell. She was a foster child and had been moved to a foster home where the family that was supposed to be taking care of her made her practically be on her own. They only gave her a little money at the beginning of each month to pay for things like clothes and food. She had to do everything for herself and because the money didn't cover everything she had to have a muggle job. She worked at a little café as a waitress. She had had countless male customers hit on her and she just got annoyed with them but managed to ignore it. She tried to spend as much of her time out of her foster home as possible because her foster mom and dad were drug addicts and always drunk. On countless occasions her foster father had abused her for no reason. The wizarding world must have wizards and witches working undercover everywhere. Foster homes, adoption agencies, post offices, etc. she was really thankful that they were their because how exactly do you explain to your foster parents that you are a witch and every September you go away to a magical boarding school? You don't, that's how. So and undercover witch or wizard most likely told my foster parents that I was going to stay at the school that I had already been in to keep one thing in my life stable. So now I am here and after this year I am aloud to leave the foster care system and live wherever I please and do whatever I please. I was nothing less that ecstatic. Back home I don't know what I would do if I didn't have my broom. I worked extra hours and saved up and ate almost nothing after 1st year in order to buy it. It took out most of my savings that I had but it was the best thing that I ever bought. The only things I have ever bought in my life (this was a very short list) were food, clothes (not many and not often), my broom, blank notebooks, school supplies, robes, a wand, and sometimes just commodities like nail polish (not much of it), the occasional free reading book. The only other thing I owned was my iPod and my guitar, both had been gifts for my birthdays from all of my friends. (A/N: I know the iPod is not in the proper time frame and all and it is muggle but for this story's purpose just leave it be please) Now you maybe wondering about things like haircuts and how the hell I got the colored streaks in my hair. One word answers that, magic. Literally, I cut my hair with a spell that I found and I figured out how to put the streaks in my hair so that even when my hair grew the color grew with it. I also always have all of my belonging with me in my bag. I charmed my trunk which could hold all of my belongings in it to shrink to fit in my bag. The only things that were never in my trunk were my wallet, my keys, a small blank notebook with a few pens, and my wand. I didn't have a phone because I didn't need one and I was perfectly fine with no one being able to get a hold of me. I didn't have to worry about any of it after this year. After this year I would be free, free from everything that has ever held me back in the past. As we entered the Great Hall I felt a rush of relief flood through me. I took a seat next to Daren, my boyfriend since the very end of last year. He sat to my left and on my right sat Leah and next to her sat Remus. On the left side of Daren sat James. Across from James sat Sirius. On Sirius's left sat Frank and next to Frank sat Lucy and next to Lucy sat Lucia and then finally next to Lucia sat Lily, as far away from James as possible, no surprise there. They used to be best friends up until the beginning of 2nd year. But that was another subject for later discussion.

"So James," I said leaning in front of Daren so I could see James, "When are Quidditch tryouts?" I new there was a happy gleam in my eyes right now. Quidditch was everything to me besides Hogwarts, that is.

"I was thinking maybe next week, possibly next Saturday then have the list posted next Sunday." He replied. James was captain and a bloody good one at that. He was also the seeker, Sirius was a beater as was Daren, Lucia and I were chasers, and we didn't have either a keeper or another chaser because they were both 7th years last year and they had left. So we needed a new chaser that had to get along with both Lucia and I and we need a keeper with insanely amazing skill. Both Lucia and I knew that we would have to help make the final call on the chaser but the keeper was up to James.

"I'm going to call a team meeting this Saturday. You guys also have to be at the tryouts, ok?" James said.

"Got it." I replied.

"What time?" Lucia asked showing interest in the conversation.

" I don't know yet. I was thinking around 8 am because from now on our practices will be ever Saturday and 8 am rain, snow, or shine so why not get into the habit of waking up on time?" James faced both of us, which must have been very hard to do.

"James," I said, "If I can make a suggestion." He nodded, signaling for me to continue, "Move the team meeting up to this Friday night, have tryouts Saturday morning, and then post who made the team Saturday night or Sunday morning." Everyone turned to look at me, fascinated that I had that idea.

"That's the best plan I've heard in a while. Oh and we can get in another practice to test out the new players. Oh we should have practice Saturday AND Sunday! That way we get maximum practice time to get used to the new players. Yes!" James had started to talk to himself so the rest of us just tuned him out.

"So Lux, how was your holiday?" asked Sirius. Immediately Lucia, Lily, and Lucy stiffened. Sirius didn't know about my situation. The only people who knew were Daren, Lucia, Lily, Lucy, and Remus who had somehow or another found out.

"Fine." I replied tersely.

"Whoa, who put a stick up your arse?" Sirius asked. Surprised that I had snapped because most of the time I was the nice easy-going person. Somewhat of a modern-day hippie if you will.

"My foster dad." I mumbled under my breath.

"Who?" Sirius asked his brow furrowed in deep concern.

"No one." I said as I looked down at my plate which was empty.

"No there has to be someone. Who is it?" Sirius persisted. Couldn't he tell that I didn't want to talk about it? Couldn't he just drop it? No, he couldn't.

"Lux, who did this? We'll go out and kill them for doing this to you if you tell us who it is." Sirius was always protective of all of us, like the older brother that I had always wanted to have and know. I was thankful that my friends cared about me so much. Just then Dumbledore got up to start is speech.

"I'll tell you after the feast." I whispered just at Dumbledore started his speech.

"You'd better stay true to that promise." Sirius said leaning across the table. With that we all turned our attention to Professor Dumbledore.

"Welcome to another year here at Hogwarts! Yes normally my annual speech comes after the sorting but this year I decided to give two speeches. One to the older students and one to all students. This year there are many things to be accomplished. There are Quidditch tryouts to be had, school work to be completed, spells to be cast, potions to be brewed, and objects to be transfigured. There are also dark arts to be concurred, predictions to be made, creatures to be cared for, and ancient languages to be translated! Now there are a few rules that I feel need to be reviewed." With that he looked directly at us, the Marauders and the honorary Marauders, then glanced at the rest of the Great Hall. "There will be no magic used in the hallways, there will be no sneaking around after curfew, and there will be absolutely NO pranks. Is that clear?" He had a twinkle in his eye as he said this knowing that we would still pull pranks, we would still sneak around after curfew, and there would most likely still be magic used in the hallways. "Now that that has been covered, let's get to the sorting!" and with that the doors opened and the group of terrified 1st years walked in with Professor McGonagall in the lead caring a stool and the sorting hat. Then the sorting began. After the sorting was done, Professor Dumbledore began to give his second speech, which was mostly a repeat of his first speech. Then came his famous words "Let the feast begin!" and with that all of the dishes filled instantly with food and we all started to fill our plates with heaps of food. This was the best food I had tasted in over two months and all holiday this is what I waited for, this moment. The moment when all of my friends were with me, the moment I didn't have to worry about being abused while I was asleep, when I didn't have to worry about what I was going to eat that day or when I would finally feel ok again. This was the moment when I was happy.

* * *

After the feast we all headed up to the Gryffindor tower except Lily and James who were being shown the Heads tower by Professor McGonagall. We all sat and waited for them to return because they said after McGonagall showed them their tower they would come to the Gryffindor tower, James would post a notice on the board inside the entrance way, and then they would show us the Heads tower. I had a feeling that since we would be there, Sirius would find some way to make me talk about my summer and inevitably my life. Lucia, Lucy, and I all headed up to our dorm and found not just four beds but five, we figured the the fifth bed was for Lily if she ever wanted it. It felt good to be home. We started unpacking just to get it over with. After we had unpacked, it hadn't taken long at all, we went down to the common room to find the boys in the same positions they were in when we left. We went and sat down in front of the fire. We waited and finally Lily and James came in and took us to their tower.

* * *

Surprisingly their tower was only five portraits away from the Gryffindor tower. 'So that's what the other tower we always wondered about was for.'

"You know what's funny? There apparently are five Heads towers! One near the Slytherin common room but I guess that one wouldn't be considered a tower, one near the Hufflepuff tower that one probably isn't much of a tower either, one near the Ravenclaw tower, this one, and then one near the kitchens. Apparently there all for when either both Heads are from the same house or if they are both from separate houses then they us the Heads tower by the kitchens. I just find that funny that we didn't know about it!" Lily exclaimed. James, Sirius, Daren, Frank, and Remus all looked very suspicious when Lily said that.

We arrived at their portrait which was that of a Greek god and goddess. They were both dressed in white, draped togas.

"Well what have we here? Did the lovely Heads bring along some friends? How nice! I'm Artemis and this is Apollo. Oh me, I just keep talking! I'll stop now. Password?" said Artemis who's hair was tied up with a thin gold band that ran all the way around her head and across her forehead.

"Cornish Pixies" James said standing in front of the portrait.

"Of course" Artemis said smiling. The portrait opened and we climbed through the portrait hole and walked into the common room that was an exact replica of the Gryffindor common room down to the carpet everything was exactly the same. We all moved in to come and sit in the Heads common room. It felt exactly like the Gryffindor common room only less people.

"Ok Lux, what's the deal?" Sirius said looking directly at me.

"Well…" I looked around at all of my friends and noticed that Lily was looking down, Lucy was staring at the fire, Leah was sitting with her eyes closed, and Lucia was staring up at the ceiling all trying to not show their worries and concerns and the fact that they knew what was about to be said. Then I looked at Remus who was looking at Leah, James and Sirius who were staring at me intently waiting for me to start talking, and Daren who had a look on his face that said 'you don't have to do this if you don't want to' and was looking at me with concerned eyes.

"Well… um… I guess I'll start at the beginning?" I wasn't sure how that became a question but it did. I took a deep breath and looked down at my hands, " When I was born, my mom… um she didn't want to keep me so she just gave me up for adoption." I could feel the tears already starting to form in my eyes.

"So your adopted? That's not bad, is it?" Sirius said. I looked up knowing that my tears wouldn't be able to be held in for much longer.

"No I never got adopted. No one wanted me. My mom had me when she was young so she just gave me up. I've been in and out of foster homes since I was four because until I turned four a girls home took me in but they only cared for girls under the age of four so after that they, in a sense, kicked me out. So I was put into the foster care system. I've been in and out of seven foster up until the time when I was eleven then I got moved to another foster home, a foster home which I have been at for the past six years. My current foster parents are both drug addicts and are always drunk." I looked up and paused to gauge their reactions. They were all looking at me in horror, just as I suspected. "Oh it gets better, believe me it gets better. My foster dad, Sirius he's the one who put a stick up my arse, since he is always drunk and on drugs he beats me most nights for no reason that I am aware of. He beats me and then abuses me so I try to spend as much time out of the house as possible. At the beginning of each month they, my foster parents, give me twenty five dollars to spend for the entire month on food and such. Well incase you didn't know, twenty five dollars is not enough money to live off of for an entire month so I had to get a job as a waitress at a local café near my foster home. There they can give me all of my meals for free because in the summer I work their all day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The owner also knows that my home isn't the greatest place for me to be, she doesn't know the whole story but she knows enough, so she set up a cot in the back for me to sleep on. She is there 24/7 so she always keeps an eye on me. The funny thing is that she is a squib, both her parents were wizards, so she knows that I'm a witch and she knows about Hogwarts and magic and stuff so she lets me keep my job when I return from school. But once a week I have to go home to my foster home, my foster parents made that a rule, and that's normally when my foster dad beats me. So I went home yesterday and had to stay the night there and it was practically torture. He came in around midnight and they had just gotten back from a bar I think, and he came in with a baseball bat and…" I looked at my friends. "I'm sorry you really don't need to hear this, I'll just stop."

"No go on. We're going to kill him anyways we might as well know what he did to you." James said.

"Well, like I said, he he came in and and," that's when the tears started to fall, "he made me get out of bed and he just started to hit me everywhere with his fists. Then he found his fists no longer sufficient enough for him so he picked up the baseball bat and… he just started hitting me more. It hurt, and still does hurt, like hell. I'll probably have bruises for weeks." I laughed a bit trying to lighten the mood, "And so that's my story." I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. It was a relief to get it all off my chest.

"I hate to ask this but… can we possibly see the bruises?" Frank asked. I could tell from the others expressions that they were interested in it too.

"Sure, I mean why not?" I stood up and started to pull my shirt up just a bit to show my stomach. I never realized until I looked down how bad it was. My entire stomach was black and blue. Every single person in that room was staring at me.

"I know I'm angry right now at that bastard who did this to you, and I'm currently internally debating weather or not to make you go to the Hospital Wing." Daren looked at me as he spoke.

"There's nothing she can do about it. The damage is done. I can walk, play Quidditch, talk, and do any other things. It really just causes occasional discomfort. Really I'm fine." I told him.

"Wait you never told us, what did you do with the twenty five dollars that your foster parents gave you and the money you earned working?" Lucy asked looking up from the fire.

"Oh each month I save it into a savings account so that I can buy school supplies and what's left over goes right back into the savings account so I can buy a flat after school. I'm probably still going to be working at the café so I won't have to worry about meals and such." I replied with a slight nod of my head.

So that was my story out on the table for everyone to see.


End file.
